A member of a Saskatchewan group promoting Métis fishing rights has been charged after fishing in Alberta — and the group is happy about it.

Alfred Janvier, of La Loche, Sask., who was at the centre of a Métis hunting rights case last year after shooting a Moose in Alberta, was charged by conservation officials with commercial fishing without a licence on Thursday.

He was part of a group of Métis fishermen from Buffalo Narrows and La Loche who want a court to rule on whether they have a right to fish throughout a wide area that straddles the Alberta-Saskatchewan border.

Members of the group made their way to a lake in the Fort McMurray area and set a fishing net.

They had phoned conservation officers in advance, even the local paper, filling them in on their plan. They had tried the same thing several weeks ago and weren't charged, but this time they were.

Saskatchewan Métis people can't fish in Alberta without a licence, even if it's within land local Métis have used in the past, but Buffalo Narrows Métis local president Phillip Chartier says a border shouldn't matter.

"We've always maintained that the border did not extinguish our rights, so we went and had a fish harvest in that area," he said.

It's not the first time Janvier, a Métis elder, has crossed paths with conservation officials. In 2005, he was charged with illegally shooting a moose across the Alberta border.

The Alberta government dropped those charges last summer. Chartier says the only way to get clarity on the law is to take it through the courts.

"Charter of Rights under Section 35 — Métis rights are recognized there, yet in the provinces, they don't want to take responsibility," Chartier said. "So they got to push the issue through their own courts, and the courts have been very favourable to us."

The case is scheduled to go to court in June. Officials from the Alberta government weren't available for comment.